Detecting hardware changes

The application kudzu detects and configures new and/or changed hardware on a Linux system. When started, kudzu detects the current hardware and checks it against a database stored in /etc/sysconfig/hwconf, if one exists. It then determines if any hardware has been added or removed from the system. If new hardware is found, the user is prompted to configure the hardware. If hardware is expected but not found, the user can remove the configuration. Kudzu then updates the database in /etc/sysconfig/hwconf. If no previous database exists, kudzu attempts to determine what devices have already been configured by looking at /etc/modules.conf, /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/, and /etc/X11/XF86Config.

The following are just a few of the pieces of hardware identified and stored in the hwconf database. The full listing can be obtained with the command kudzu -p. Shown in the following listing are a network interface card (NIC), a floppy drive, a CD-ROM drive, and a hard drive. By storing this information and comparing it with current values, any changes in the physical hardware can be found.

class: NETWORK
bus: PCI
detached: 0
device: eth
driver: 3c59x
desc: "3Com Corporation|3c905C-TX/TX-M [Tornado]"
vendorId: 10b7
deviceId: 9200
subVendorId: 1028
subDeviceId: 00d5
pciType: 1

class: FLOPPY
bus: MISC
detached: 0
device: fd0
driver: unknown
desc: "3.5" 1.44MB floppy drive"

class: CDROM
bus: SCSI
detached: 0
device: scd0
driver: ignore
desc: "Matshita CDRW/DVD UJDA740"
host: 0
id: 0
channel: 0
lun: 0
generic: sg0

class: HD
bus: IDE
detached: 0
device: hda
driver: ignore
desc: "FUJITSU MHT2060AT"
physical: 116280/16/63
logical: 7296/255/63